


Singin' in the Rain

by toxinspired



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Marauders' Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-06
Updated: 2015-11-06
Packaged: 2018-04-30 08:17:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5156681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toxinspired/pseuds/toxinspired
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The floor plan of Remus and Lily's new apartment is unfortunate and not well thought out. Thin walls are a curse. And a blessing?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Singin' in the Rain

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted on my tumblr, based off of queerauders' prompt.

Remus dropped the box with a dull thud and fell against his bare mattress with a sigh. He would put the sheets on after he made dinner. Or ordered pizza. Ordering pizza sounded like a good idea.

“Lily!”, he called as he walked out of his bedroom, phone in hand, “Do we want shitty but cheap chain restaurant pizza or nice but expensive Actual Italian pizza to celebrate finally moving in?”

Lily looked up from where she was sprawled out onto the “this-came-from-my-dad’s-basement-and-smells-perpetually-like-cigarettes” couch, “If we were cliche college students who just moved into their first apartment I would say, ‘the expensive one! we’re celebrating!!’ but we are broke college students, so Pizza Hut it is.”

Remus chuckled and dialed it up onto his phone (speed dial 9), ordering them one large pizza. Setting down his phone, he opened up the fridge and tossed a beer to Lily.

“To our new apartment.” he proposed, raising his beer can.

“To our new apartment.” Lily echoed, taking a huge swig of beer.

~

He was going over his music theory notes when he first heard it.

Remus was sitting at his desk, flipping through his notebook, rereading stuff about progressions and discordance, generally minding his business. Water. Rushing water. Someone taking a shower.

Remus frowned, Lily wasn’t home. He grabbed the nearest weapon (a huge metal puzzle he got for Christmas a year ago) and ventured into his apartment.

"Lily?” But the sound of water was gone.

Remus went back into his room, but he could hear it then. The distinct noise water made when it was forced out of small holes and fell onto tile, and a human. Cautiously, he put his ear against the wall in front of his desk, and then jumped back.

“Hey, I just met you, and this is crazyyyy~” A stranger sung in a terrible falsetto from the other side of the wall.

Remus almost banged his head on his desk. Of course the wall to his bedroom would have to border his neighbor’s shower. Of course the walls had to be thin. Of course said neighbor had to be someone who sung, badly, in the shower.

And, as Remus would find out 20 minutes, of course his neighbor loooved long showers, and of course they never stopped singing in the shower.

~

It’s really hard to concentrate on music theory when the true definition of off-key was singing.

~

Ok, but Remus had to admit, it could be amusing when his faceless and nameless virtuoso of a neighbor could be heard getting soap in their eye or stubbing their toe and the singing abruptly changed to loud swearing.  
It was less amusing, Remus decided, when the neighbor decided to (Remus assumed) jack off. Loudly.

Oh, but when they actually vocalized the bass drops in songs was kind of funny though.

~

He could handle Justin Beiber’s “Baby”. He could even handle the Avril Lavernge “Hello Kitty” that followed. And it was a true test to his patience, but he could even withstand “Never Gonna Give You Up”. But as the casual rickroll faded into “Pon Pon Pon”, Remus was done. Using both hands, he shoved himself up from his desk (almost knocking his chair over) and stalked out his apartment, walking straight past Lily asleep on the couch, with Young Justice playing in the background.

He paused his anger to close hos own door quietly because Lily probably does not get enough sleep anyway, he shouldn’t wake her. But he was back into Remus Fury mode as he delivered three loud knocks on the next door.

The man who answered, leaned against the door frame and lowered his glasses to look at Remus, one eyebrow raised high on his forehead, “Can I help you?”

“Yes, yes you can. I have a bone to pick with your roommate.” Remus decided, looking at the man’s obviously bone dry hair.

The man’s posture immediately changed, holding his hands up in defense, “Woah, woah, woah, Sirius hasn’t done anything wron- illegal since like, last semester.”

It was Remus’s turn to raise an eyebrow, “I don’t care about his legal record. I care about his obnoxious and tone deaf singing. And you know what, his terrible taste in music too.”

Inside the apartment, a door opened with a click and a burst of steam, and the most gorgeous man Remus had ever seen stepped out. And he once got dragged to a male fashion show. His dark, messy hair cascaded around his face, accenting his high cheek bones, and a lone pearl of water mesmerized Remus as it made its way down the man’s sharp jawline. He followed its trail as it dropped, drawing his attention to the very loose towel wrapped around the man’s waist and the enticing V’s that, sadly, disappeared into the towel.

All the pent up anger and annoyance in Remus dispersed like a cloud of steam.

“Prongs, why is there a hipster standing our doorway?” The “virtuoso” said, “And why is he staring at me?”

“I don’t know, Pads.” The man in glasses said, “He just showed up and started complaining about your singing.”

He threw his head back in a short laugh before meeting Remus’s eyes, a smirk curling into his gorgeous lips, “Please, complain all you want.”

Remus coughed and looked down, avoiding the man’s stare, “Well. Your bathroom is right next to my bedroom and I, uh, can always hear you singing. I mean, you’re usually pretty loud. Um, and it’s, uh, getting hard for me to study. And, uh, yeah. Um, are you tone deaf or something?”

“Mmhmm.” The taller man nodded, looking Remus up and down, “So I’ve been interrupting your all important studying with my shower singing.”

Remus nodded curtly.

“Okay.” ‘Pads’ burst into a smile, “How about tomorrow, I take you down to that cafe at the corner so you can study? Of course, I’ll pay. To make up for my… tone deafness.”

Remus almost took a physical step back, “Um, what? You mean like, a date?”

“No, I’m just going to take you out for coffee, my treat, and stare at you admiringly while you study, oblivious to my enticement. Obviously not a date. Obviously.” Pads said, adjusting the towel around his waist. Okay, that was an unfair move.

“Yeah alright then, I guess I’ll meet you tomorrow for our totally-not-a-date,” Remus responded, still a little taken aback, but he could feel the excitement bubbling in his stomach.

The man with the glasses, who had resumed leaning against the doorway, coughed purposely, “Sorry to interrupt this, whatever this is, but I need to beat Sirus’s ass at MarioKart so that I don’t have to do the dishes.”

“Tomorrow, noon?” Sirus asked, as his roommate started to close the door.

“Noon.” Remus nodded as the door shut.

Forgetting his sleeping roommate, Remus swung his apartment door open with a bang, “Lily, dial up Pizza Hut, we are getting celebratory pizza!”

~

The singing was a lot more tolerable when Remus got to choose the music. Or even, sometimes, sing along.


End file.
